Hey, minna san...

What do u think of the changes made to the forum? kindly post ur comments here~ thanks in advance

****IMPT*** Pls read this post!!!
http://www.arashian.com/index.php?topic=33.0


The minimum requirement is to encourage members to participate. I hope minna san will like this new change. 

Dear Arashians,

I notice that many fellow arashians still have their signatures which are over the limit of 800 x 160 in size. Kindly read our forum rules and regulations: http://www.arashian.com/index.php?topic=34.0 .

Please make the necessary update/changes. Thank you.

Regards
Xiaowanzi

Noted. Forum closed from 25th June until 1st July. About 5-6 days offline ne.

Does any forum need money to run it? Because I wasn't sure about the pop up thing!!

Hmm, i will try to explain and answer your questions as best as i can.

For the forum to run/load... we are allocated with a monthly bandwidth. It's the allowed traffic and data which arashian.com can use in a month. Each time you click on a page to load in arashian.com, it takes up a little bit of the bandwidth. The more data the page has, the more bandwidth it requires.

What i am going to share is not known to everyone else here. I'll probably get bash  for telling you all this... but no matter what, i'm going to say my piece.

For the forum to be up and running, the webmaster subscribes/pays a monthly subscription. And since the forum started, he increased the forum's bandwidth so many times. Each increase = pay more money upon each increase + more money subsequently each month. Indeed, it's an expensive affair. The webmaster paid more money so that is why the forum is back before 1st Jul.

The forum is not run by hosts who provides free forums. And the domain Arashian.Com does not belong to others. Oue webmaster handles it all.

With all that in mind, despite the high costs of maintenance... he tries not to include ads and pop up ads. We used to have small google ads but it was removed quite some time ago. Yes, we all know pop up ads are very irritating.   

To reduce bandwidth usage, i have restricted members to post attachments on their posts. I have also reduce the smileys which are to be loaded upon posting a reply/new topic. I am currently looking into other methods where i can continue to reduce the forum's bandwidth. And yes  , i am open to suggestions.

I will also be looking at alternatives which will help to support the forum's expenses...   

Yes, i am very grateful and really appreciate all that he does for us. 
Without our webmaster, there will be no Arashian.Com~
 

Hmm, it includes guests & members.
What is counted is the data traffic used...

Dearest Arashians,

With reference to the following posts Annoucement of bandwidth problem and Explanation of bandwidth problem

Continuing from my explanation of bandwidth problem's post, we are currently facing great difficulties in keeping to the high costs of running of the forum. Basically, the problem lies with our monthly subscription fees. With the recent increase of the bandwidth limit, the subscription fees has also escalated with the bandwidth increased.

The forum had went down, and was inaccessible on several occassions due to "hitting" the bandwidth limit.
Hence, we have to introduce new measures (in addition to what i have implemented) to help by reducing bandwidth and also to find ways to reduce the subscription fees.

Reducing bandwidth
- I have already reduced the smiley emoticons that are to be loaded upon posting a reply/new topic.
- I have already restricted that attachments are not allowed.
- I am already deleting registered members who did not activate their accounts within 14 days.
- I have already deleted registered members who did not post a single post for more than a year after activation.
==> results are good, it has helped but not enough

- I will be reducing the no. of boards our guests are allowed to access
- I am currently considering limiting registeration of new members. Meaning, registration is only open only after our bandwidth problem gets better
- I am currently considering closure of certain boards (last resort)


Looking for source to help in the fees
- I am considering of acceptance of "donations" via paypal
- I am considering on launching an joint program where we will receive commission for CDs ordered from Yesasia through Arashian.Com (*Please note, sales from Yesasia are not counted for Oricon Chart)

Both options are not compulsory. It is on voluntary basis and hopefully it will help us in paying a little less for subscriptions each month.
Honestly, looking for alternate sources is not our preferred choice. We still went ahead because it is almost beyond our means to keep up with the fees.

Thank you for taking time to read this and appreaciate lots for all your kind understanding..
I am open to suggestions and comments. Please feel free to suggest or comment and even ask questions.
I am definately open to advices on any other methods to help in reducing the bandwidth limit.

Regards 
Xiaowanzi
Global Moderator

BAD Xiaowanzi always close forum de le...

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

I have no choice. You can see it for yourself that we're always hitting bandwidth limit. And the matter is getting from bad to worst... You even complain that you are getting all the "reaching bandwidth limit emails" as early as third week of the month~

Naturally, i have to do something about it. The only way is to conserve bandwidth~ Otherwise, we cannot use the forum for the rest of the month. Anyway, our current bandwidth limit is really very high already. It should be able to sustain for more than a month but apparantly not~!!

Conserving bandwidth is not a one-man show... its everyone's cooperation~ we can still continue to enjoy Arashian.Com everyday so long we help one another out...
I've stated everything i can think of to help conserving bandwidth for the past few months~ I just hope it will work out~

Dear Global Moderator & Arashian
(I'm helping Arashian)

To Notes:

You can still use your signature as long as it not hosted on this server or domain name arashian.com
as from tech view it actually doesn't consume any bandwidth here.
But to speed up others arashian from viewing the page as fast as possible, It will be better to remove extra image from your signature so that It will require lesser loading time for those who have slow connection. :)

Regards,
HighSky
Webmaster Of Arashian.com
h2production.com